Evolution of Zero
by DinoholderX
Summary: Life upon Shear isn't easy, for any and all living there. For one the wildlife wants your ass for dinner, and for two the Hunters want your head for their mantle. Ya just can't win. But this is about to change for one Monster; The Goliath.
1. Midnight Slaughterground, Prologue

"Gray-three, this is Gray-one. Eyes on M-Fauna?"  
"Negative Gray-one, zero contact on M-Fauna. Only tracks."  
"Affirmative Gray-three, link with Gray-two and prep for G-Ex."  
"Hoo-rah Gray-one, moving to Gray-two's transponder."

Boots smashed small plantlife below their tread, and light arced from a flashlight, sweeping over the dense water-soaked jungle around it's host. Rifle griped in-hand, the man strode through the pouring rain with little notice, the sounds of Shear's wildlife bringing an odd serenity to the armed man. Depsite the dangers around him, he always felt that this place was... wonderious. A beaut in the galaxy above Tera itself.  
It wasn't a thought shared by the colonists though, or other mercenaries even. Especially the ones who survived Factor, that place was just... a slaughterground.

It showed that the S-Fauna weren't playing around anymore, and the weaklings where to be thinned on both sides. Suffice to say, casualty rates started to climb high after that day.

The merc pulled himself from his thoughts, and tapped his commpiece "Gray-two, this is Gray-three. I'm inbound, we're G-Ex'n." He transmitted.  
G-Ex, short for Ghost-Extraction, was the order given by the squadron leader when the contact timer had elapsed on a hunt with no visual or auditory contact with the M-Fauna. It was an option only taken when everyone decided they where using their time on the hunt for to-little sport or to-little advantage. Basically it meant the whole thing was non-worthwhile.

A rustle in the bushes next to him earned a burst of automatic rifle fire at the culprit.  
"Ah, fuck! Weapons tight, shitballs!" A woman shrieked, a rock flying out of the brushline. Followed by the thrower, the team's Trapper 'Gray-two'. She also had a bullethole burrowed into her arm, rivulets of red rushing down the limb.

"Jesus, sorry! But you where the one skulkin' in the bushes like a damn Wraith, so who fault was htat one." Gray-three defended, thrusting his chest at Gray-two for emphasis " 's cause I saw th' damn M-Fauna comin' this way, it's been stalkin' us for the past fuckin' hour." she said, crossing her arms.

"What? Why the shit didn't you transmit or something?!" Gray Three shouted, only to get tackled to the ground by Gray-two " 'cuz, somehow, the thing's been keepin' an ear on our comms. Musta figured out how t' use Gray-four's commpeice when it got him." she whispered, pulling the large man up to his feet and shoving him back a foot or so.

"So, let's just get to the Ex-point, and set up an ambush." she said, pulling her glasses off and rubbing some rainwater off them "Got it, shitballs?" se asked, looking back to Gray-three.

He was gone.

"... Gray-three?... G-three?... Oh _shit_!" Gray-two whispered, realization dawning on her. She bolted down the gametrail, boots kicking up mud and water, breath coming ragged and fast, and eyes darting to every motion behind her shades.

Calls started to erupt behind her, thundering booms form the bestial abomination tailing her, it knew she had found it out, and it didn't care. It _wanted_ her to know it was coming. Heavy footsteps thudded after her, daring Gray-two to look back and see her pursuer. But she didn't rise to the bait.

To bad, she may have saved her life that way.

A jetstream of fire blew out for her pursuer's slavering maw, and the last thing Gray-two felt was searing pain flushing across her body, and a ragged scream tearing from her throat. Her charred husk fell stiffly to the muddy ground and her pursuer stomped closed, droplets of salivation mixing with rainwater

* * *

The smell of burning flesh, the cracklings of the meat as the concoction from my body burning the Invader to a crisp all the better for consumption. As is the cycle.

My claws scooped the small body up, a female from her dainty frame -though my fires had seared away much of her body's fattier parts, and much of her false armored hide, so I may have been wrong- and lacking in the more dense of muscle that the males carried themselves with. Much like the Guardians if it was though over, though it rarely was by any of us.  
We where more concerned with saving lives.

I placed the husk within my mouth, chewed and swallowed, feeling her last few moments flash through my mind I shuddered. I truly hated taking their lives so gruesomely, but she had moved to fast to run down, was far from the range of my leaps, and I could not trust the accuracy of hurling a chunk of Home from this distance. So my flames where the sole option.

But I could not trouble myself with how my prey died, I had to press onwards. One Invader yet still breathed, and it was my duty to Home and it's life to either remove them from the Cycle, or force them to join it as all other life was here. It was as the Heart spoke, and such was law to the Guardians. But that was not the present matter, the Hunt was.

I crouched low and slunk into the vegetation, my matte-gray hide blending with the light casted through the clouds overhead. This was where I was most at home, making my way through the trails and terrains of my domain in search of Prey, though in the last few moons it had been soured by the Invaders arrival upon Home.

It was a a night that all living upon Home would remember, for it was the last night of true freedom for those within the Cycle as fire and metal rained from the sky. The Invaders came upon them wilds of Home, taking over the dens of Wilds, butchering wantonly, driving the Wilds mad with grief and rage. The Heart dictated that the Invaders where a poison upon Home, and had to be purged by the Guardians, much as it pained most all of them.  
It had, at first, only been an attempt to turn them away, show them that that this Home, was not theirs'. Yet the invaders persisted against the protectors of the Cycle, an admittedly admirable trait in my eyes -persistence and determination where some of my own strengths, I respected all who emulated or mirrored it- even if it was not a view shared by the other Guardians. This forced the Heart to take a direct hand in destroying one of their Dens of metal and light, the one called Factor -I never comprehended the name's origin, what was it a factor in?- was razed by the Heart in naught but a night.

But what was meant to demoralized, forced desperation. The Invaders where indeed fleeing, yet they summoned up their own Guardians to defend them from the Wilds and my own.

This proved problem, as it seemed these Pseudo-Guardians where also set on killing as many natives to home as they could while they where here.

It was not received well by said natives, to say the least.

I took a deep breath inwards, hundred of scents filling in my nostrils. A pack of scavengers flew overhead, trailing me in anticipation of leftover carrion. The water-lord resting within the overflowing pool off towards my right, the wreckage of several Invader Dens ahead.  
And the last Invader -"Gray-one", as he was called by his dead packmates- standing in the middle of the trail, just past the ruined shells of metal.

I gave a pause cocking my head to the left slightly, this Invader wasn't concerned I'd see him, or rather _seen_ him, like the others of his pack. He just stood still, with weapon in-hand and eyes dead ahead. He was waiting, but for what?  
I paid it no more mind, he was vulnerable and I had to end him.

I pressed forward, crawling up one of the burnt out shells and looking down upon him. He was a large male, larger than most, and armed with a weapon that I actually recognized. It was a long, boxy thing with a front partition that rotated and spat shards of metal at range -why where the Invaders so enamored with metals?- in a rate that would put the Cunning's speed to shame, it was also extremely dangerous, even when it was the sole thing attacking you. I had to be wary, and catch him off guard.

He looked up at me, sharp green eyes locking with my own fiery orange glow, and in that gaze I saw several things. Hate, rage, fear, loss, anticipation, even small tinges of excitement. But the most prevalent, was his sorrow.

I understood it's root, the loss of a pack was something that weighed heavily on many Wilds. Continuation of the Cycle or no.

"... What are you waiting for? Come and get me!" He roared, pointing his weapon in my direction and igniting it. A stream of metal shards flew at me, cutting into my hide and evoking a harsh roar of my own. The pain wiped away any feelings I had, aside from the drive to end the hunt and tear this Invader asunder.

I leapt to the air, I could not fly like the Mind, but my jumps allowed me the crash down like one of the Invader's flying balls of fire to Home's soil. I crashed down upon the Invader, my claws missing him by inches and sending the male flying back from the shockwave. Again his weapon whirred ot life, and more pain cut across my frame, this time on my softer underbelly. A torrent of blood cascaded down to the ground, interbreeding with the rainwater and permeating into Home's soil.

My tail swept out in a spherical arc, but the Invader's size did not belay slugishness as he deftly leapt over the attack. He gripped on to the offending extremity and started beating on to it with some odd clawish weapon, each strike carving deeper and deeper into flesh. But blood rage had settled itself into my mind, and I cared not for my own self-state.

Time to end this, I had enough. I sucked in a breath, and felt the fire build within me.

"This is for my squad, you goddamn monster." the man growled, pulling a circular object from his hide. Something on his back glowed, and he shot forward... into my maw! Perfect, he'd just sealed his fate. I bit down, and was met with the delightful sound of his scream... but the scream had words, that was wrong. Screams didn't have words.

"Martyrdom, that's the name of the fucking game!"

Martyrdom, I'd heard that before. Commonly before a blast of fire and metal took the lives of one of the Invaders that had been sufficiently wounded and isolated... then it clicked, that little object he took in hand before jumping into my mouth, the scream...

"_**Grenade!**_"

And the last thing I heard, was a deafening boom.

**()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()**

**So, I'm back. After a _looo__ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo__ooong_ dry spell. I'm back in business.**

**I just started getting into Evolve recently, managed to nab a few sessions at a friends house when she got it, and fell in love. Been triyng to get back over there at least once a week since then.**

**But that's not he point. The point is, that I'm writing again, hopefully at a higher quality than before and if not feel free to tell me.**

**If this chapter is a bit short, don't worry. I'm doing the Prologue short, then I'll start to extend the chapters to be longer and longer, I just wanna get into the flow. After this little episode on Shear, we'll be moving along to Halkgenia and our favorite pinkette IED. And don't worry about her future Familiar, he's not getting off that easy.**

**By the way, just for the people who don't fully understand the terms I used or who's POV the two halves were in, here's a neat little glossery.**

**Gray Team**

**Gray-one: Team Assault, armed with a minigun, several explosives, and a machete. Also the Leader of Gray Team. KIA to combined Goliath bite and Kamikaze attack with his own grenades.**

**Gray-two: Team Trapper, armed with an autoshotgun and dual pistols, sole female on the team. KIA to Goliath fire breath. Corpse consumed for armor.**

**Gray-three: Team Medic, armed with an automatic rifle. Not that he got ot use it on the actual monster. KIA to sneak attack and disembowelment. Corpse consumed for stealth.**

**Gray-four: Team Support, armed with crossbow loading multiple arrow types. KIA to boulder being thrown at him, Commpeice stolen by Goliath and used to monitor Gray Team transmissions. Corpse consumed for info on commpeice.**

**Goliath terms**

**Guardian: The Monsters in Evolve, I always thought they where kind of like a Gaia's Wrath sort of thing against the colonists. Makes sense they think of themselves at the Guards of Shear.**

**The Heart: the Behemoth. It just screams 'final boss', don't it? So I always thought of it as like the big boss of the Monsters.**

**The Mind: Kraken. It's the second squishiest of the foursome of monsters and uses ranged the monster... plus it looks like Cthulu had a baby with a mIndflayer, both very intelligent. So the line was obvious.**

**The Cunning: Wraith, obviously. You need to be cunning to use that monster in game and out, brute force'll get ya killed.**

**Water-lord: the Shearian's name for the Tyrant. I'm betting we all died to it's crocodillian deathroll once or twice. I know I did.**

**Wilds: Wildlife... I really don't think that need further explanation. **

**Home: Shear, considering that the native fauna wouldn't think to call it anything else. If they even commonly think about that kind of thing.**

**Invaders: _US_! In Evolve, Humans are attempting colonization of Shear and the elimination/domestication of it's wildlife, it's natural for the natives to give them antagonistic nomenclatures.**

**The Cycle: Ah, the million dollar question, what's this 'Cycle' that our protagonist keeps talking about? Well, it's essentially Darwinism taken to a religious level. Everything on Shear exists to hunt, be hunted, eat, get eaten, and grow stronger. Essentially a gladiator games way of deciding what species on Shear gets to gain a place like the ones Humans have on Earth.**

**That's all for now! I hope that you will enjoy the story!**

**Also, I'll be taking a poll to see if Saito should be included.**


	2. Fate's Crossroads, Prologue

Not all places are like Shear. Not all where coated from head to hem in combinations of dangerious fauna, poisons permeating the planet like the immune system on a celestial scale, weathers that could deluge a flood within minutes or bury a colony in sand and dirt, and creatures that are practically the incarnation of the planet's will..  
Some where almost exactly like our own land of Terra.

Halkgenia is one of them. Odd as it's civilized life is, and... well, odd is sadly the best word that can be used, if compared to the peoples of our earth or of the Shearian colonists'. Though, that doesn't need to be described any farther, it is known fact. What does need to be extrapolated on farther is one particular inhabitant of this land.

One pink-haired youngest of a Duchess and Duke of Vallière, and student of the magic arts.

Louise the Zero

* * *

Tomorrow was the day, the day that I proved myself a world above all the ridicule, the names, the downcast opinions of every other noble in my life! Tomorrow I brought my familiar into this world, and gained a creature that would blow away even the most wretched of my tormentors -one fat-chested Germanian slut came to mind- and gained my rightful respect as a noble...

If my nerves would allow me to think for even a moment, that is! It had been like his for the past week, forcing my academic performance to plummet to a level much like my magic, and a few whispers of a new nickname had reached my ears. Being 'Zero' was bad enough, but this new one -'Total Zero'- was _even worse_.

I pushed those thoughts down to a dark pit in my mind, and threw a boulder down after them. I looked back to the books laid out before me, I'd managed to squeeze info out of Tabitha on the best books of summoning -one of the few good things I could extract from my reputation, a certain level of pity when I 'pleaded' for aide- to see if I could find an unconventional structured spell. I had a theory about my magic, something about the standard array of leylines within the spell caused my magic to backlash and caused the explosions I had become sadly well-known for.

So, in theory, if I could find a spell that used unconventional leylines, I may be able to successfully enact the spell!

...I may have also prayed to Brimir a few times, just in case.

So far my searches had turned up fruitless, all the summoning spells I'd found within the library -from the simple Spawn Beast, to the master-challenging Incarnate Element- used the standard arrays, maybe the slightest deviation in the formulation here and there, an extra rune or two, another verse to the incantation, but it all remained fairly consistent. All of it set to cause a detonation if I tried.  
Something needed to change, fast. If only I could just inscribe a new spell on to these blasted pages, use a spell set with leylines that I _knew_ would work!...

Wait.

That's it! I couldn't find the spell, so there was only one other choice; _make_ it!

It was a simple answer, though it would be... complex in enacting, I would have to gather the materials both basic and fantastical such as the ink, parchment, and the small doses of gem dust needed for inscribing, along with a few drops of dragon blood for potency, a griffon feather for the quill, a few drops of manticore venom to prevent the blood from clotting until I was ready, and finally a bit of powdered hhimera horn to allow the ingedients to intermix properly.

I pushed the chair I was sitting upon back, making it crash to the ground as I rushed out of the library. I had to find professor Colbert, get a letter to mother, clear my work with headmaster Osmand. Ooooh~! I'm so excited!  
But my elation was cut short when I ran facefirst into a certain tall Germainan bimbo's cleavage.

I growled, and pushed my head out of Zerbst's monster tits to be greeted with her smug visage "Well well, Louise. I hadn't expected something _that_ bold from yourself." she said, crossing her arms under her fatty mounds and pushing them outwards. I grit my teeth in a sneer "Don't flatter yourself, Zerbst! I was just more occupied with a little project I'm brewing up for the summoning ritual, something that will show up anything you could possibly dredge out of the muck of the earth!" I bit back, clenching my fists into a white-knuckle grip.

"Oh? What exactly is it?" she asked, cocking a curious eyebrow. Oh, no no, I'm not letting her know that. She just wanted to know so she could swipe it.

"None of your business, you big-breasted harlot! It's my idea, and you can't have it."

"Oh, your words wound me, little Louise! I'm just showing a little bit of innocent curiosity, is that so hard to believe?" Kirche adopted what could generiously be called an 'innocent' poise and expression, though the effect was... lessened, by the fact that the way she clasped her hands in front of her squeezed her oversized chest like her many bedmates had before.

"Yes." I dropped my voice as flat as a board, and hooded my eyes at the fellow noble. Pained me as it did to call her that.

I did not wait for her next response, and slipped past her minor attempt to block me in. She couldn't hold me up, if I was going to do this then expedience was key. If I forestalled then Mother would not be able to send me some of her familiar's venom in time, and Colbert couldn't dredge up the other more exotic materials.  
Time to go to work.

A full three hours later, I had my materials ready.

Though I may have been a bit ambitious with my list of materials. Mother had given me a few droplets of venom with only a small kerfuffle, professor Colbert had also come through with the griffon feather, but shied to supplying me with the chimera horn or dragon blood, claiming -not wholly untruthfully- that they where _extremely_ dangerous ingredients, and I was not yet fully trusted with their usage.

Though the professor did attempt to supplant me with an equal amount of wyvern blood and hippogryph talon. I took what I could get, this spell was wholly vital for my life. I grabbed up every scrap of paper, every drop of ink, and every single mote of gem dust procurable after that. Now was the time, I had to begin my work.

I fled to my room, sealing the door both with the physical lock and a few scroll-based spells -the sole type of spell I _could_ cast, though it was considered sort of cheating by nobility- to add a layering of magic blocking away the world.

I lay the paper out before me, spreading it over every available surface; my desk, bed, floor, and even the walls themselves. Once I had appropriate canvas up, I started to draw. Lines, runes, verses, motions, going as far as to even dictate how I was to breath while I casted, how my heart would beat, and each thought that I would send through my mind as I casted.

Some my call my preparation hyperparanoid, but this was not something to half-bake! My honor, status, and whole of my future depended on it! If I failed at something like his... I'd be carted off a some failure of a mage, just like everyone has called my. Married off to some disgusting perverted nobleman outside Tristainian borders before my shame became public.  
Or worse, I would be disowned and cast off.

Droplets of water stained the lattice I was sketching, I rubbed my eyes. This wasn't a time to weep, I had to be strong. Strength is what Vallière women are best known for, strength of magic, strength of mind, strength of spirit, and strength of will. All of those are the halmarks of our family, and I must embody them just as my sisters do, just as my mother does.

"No, you can't think about that. You need to...need to focus on making this spell, it's my chance." I whispered to myself, clenching my eyes shut for the briefest of moments. I saw my family's faces flash by within that moment of darkness, Mother's stony gaze looking down her nose at me, my eldest sister Eleanore's biting words whenever I tried and failed a spell... and then, my middle sister Cattleya, offering words of comfort and a shoulder to cry on when I needed it, and my father, ever-vigilant to anything that would come to harm me and ready to lay his life down for my own.

I found the resolve to continue.

I resumed with gusto, griffon feather quill furiously scritch-scratching away at the paper, each line moving me closer and closer to the completion of the spell. My body was practically moving of it's own powers now, it was a blurring array of motion.

This carried on late into the night, and early into the sunrise.

* * *

It worked! The morning had taken a turn for the rocky as I was nearly late for the ritual's opening ceremony and gaining a swift ejection from the academy in entirety, Zerbst fell into that particular pitfall to my boundless joy, and the following summons of the other students had been worthless beasts unfit to even be called vermin.

But when it came to me, I showed myself as an master amongst mice.

When I spoke the verses, the ground trembled. When I began the motions, the ground trembled. When the runic circle appeared before me, I felt the very magic in the courtyard shift to my wills. It was indescribable, even my wording here lends it to the modest side of the spectrum, it was something that one needed to be present for to _truly_ appreciate.

I stood astride my familiar's back, it's great frame standing tall above all others within the courtyard, the grandiose beast risen tall and proud. I basked in the awed, humbled, and dumbfounded looks cast upon me "Behold and observe, students of the academy, what a true noble has as a familiar. What a Vallière has as a familiar!" I called out, spreading my arms out to my sides, wind billowing below my cape.

Adulations rained down upon me, coupled with apologies and pleas for mercy from past discretion against me, like a torrent of rain. One that I took as a dried patch of field would to summer shower bringing new life and a new chance. A true chance.

A chance to be something, something greater, something that I would be proud o be, the chance to be l-

_Knock-knock-knock!_

I snorted, pulling my head up from the parchment it had rested on for a fair portion of the hour. I was back within my room, the midmorning sun bathing it in a harsh light -harsh to my sleep-addled eyes in the least- that stung like hornets. The noise that had awoken me repeated, the source of which revealing itself to be my door, and I rose to my feet with a growl.  
Whoever woke me was getting a shoe to the groin.

I slid open the door's lock, the spells had worn away early this morning -another disadvantage of scroll-based castings, their durations where vastly decreased in that form- so I didn't have to do more than get rid of the physical impediments in my way and could simply unleash my anger.

I flung the door open, and was met with the sight of one of the maids for the academy standing on the other side of it. Her hand was outstretched for another knock, and she was mid-swing when I opened the portal.

She ended up knocking on my face.

She yelped, and pulled away fearfully "O-oh dear, I'm s-so sorry lordess! I was just sent up by professor Colbert to awake you, it's almost time for the summoning ritual and he doesn't wish for you to be late." she squeaked out rapidly, then taking off down the hall towards the stairs. She nearly tripped over the hems of her own dress several times doing so.

Wait, but I had already preformed the ritual, I remember my familiar coming into existance and standing tall astride it's shoulders. I even remember the compliments payed to me, the pleas for forgiveness! Here, I'll quote one;  
…

Wait….. Oh hells, that was a _dream_!

I shrieked, rushing back into my room and throwing on my clothing in a few moments. I had to gather up my work and notes quickly! It was all needed, if I lacked a page I doubted the spell would work in the slightest. Oh, hurry hurry hurry!  
I didn't want to end up like Zerbst had in my dream, the irony would be _horrible_ for me.

I tore down the hall, papers clutched to my bust and my eyes wild.

* * *

Barely.  
I made it, just _barely_.

The oath was about to be sworn when I made it, I was _that_ close to being ejected from the academy, _that_ close to all my work being for naught. That close to my life- Nonono! Don't think of it! I was here, and that's all that mattered.

Professor Colbert started the ceremony, and I took this chance to start laying out my papers. I had to get the primary lattice laid out, then link the supporting runes to the lattice by spell lines, and finnaly fish out the list of verses, motions, and movements.

Okay, okay, calm yourself Louise. You let your heart race like it is, and you'll fail the spell, if you fail the spell then you'll be rejected from the academy like a _persona non grata _and end up a true Ser-

"Well well, Louise the Zero actually made it. Here I thought you would end up sleeping through the whole thing and save us the rouble of another explosion!"

I never thought I'd say this, but thank the founder for Zerbst's existence and my vast hatred for her!

My teeth grit again "Zerbst, do you actually have anything useful to say, or did you trade your brain for those udders?!" I shouted, whipping around to face the big-breasted Germanian with a look that would likely light her on fire if my gaze was imbued with magic.  
A project for later.

Zerbst tittered haughtily, placing a hand over her mouth with a smirk she in no way attempted to cover "Do I hear jealousy in your voice, Zero? Because it seems to me that for brains and bust, you lack both." I resisted the urge to take a swing, that would get me in more trouble than seeing Zerbst curled up and howling on the ground was worth. Besides, the spell I had ready would prove her wrong without a doubt.

"We'll see about that." I grinned, turning back to my spell laid upon the ground.

When my turn came, I signaled the professor over to me -it would be a much harder effort to move the spell to him than vice-versa- and pulled out my wand. Alright, moment of truth.

Breathe in, wave up, breathe out. The magic starts to flow.

"Founder Brimir, who watches over us all in their infinite wisdom."

_Ba-bump, ba-bump_. Two beats of the heart, breathe in, circle.

"They who govern all magic, the lifeblood of nobility."

Swipe left, swipe up. _Ba-bump_, one beat of the heart, breathe out.

"I, Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière, plead to your mercies, and your guidance."

My heart started to speed itself, I had ot calm down. Breath in, breath out, breath in...

Ba-bump.

Now!

"Summon forth my familiar from wherever it may be withing the universe!"

A beat, and then... nothing. Not even an explosion.

"... Hahaha!" Someone laughed out, I didn't care who, they all started after that.

"She can't even summon anything! Not even a lowly rat!"

"Well hey, at least it didn't explode like the last time she tried a spell! They're still putting _that_ classroom back together!"

"Zero, Zero! Louise the Zero!"

I stopped listening... or at least, I tried to. It was just... it was _true_, all the things they where saying where true. Each time I tried a spell I destroyed something without fail, be it something a simple as my own garments to something as vital as one of the academy's towers! I couldn't even manage to pull myself together and gain something piddly for a familiar.

I may have had dreams of riding astride a great beast's back, people looking up to me in awe... but in truth, I would have been fine with anything. Even a lowly dog!

My legs gave out, and I dropped to the grass. Tears welling up in my eyes, I looked down at the papers before me. All of them laid out in my own patterns, my own lattices, my own runes, all of it crafted by my hand for my specific use... and yet I _still_ couldn't cast a spell, just not cause an explosion.

Someone stepped close, and lowered themselves down ot my level "Vallière..."  
It was Kirche. Of course.

I didn't turn "If you're here to ridicule me Kirche, just get it over with. Founder knows it will likely be your last chance, any who fail the ritual are expelled." I said, unable to summon any sort of my regular anger towards her. I was just... drained, I had nothing left within me. It was better that way, or I would truly feel the hopelessness of my situation crashing down on me.

"Louise." She said softly, placing a hand on my shoulder. Was that-?... was she pitying me?  
Truly a new low.

I looked at my wand, still clasped tightly in-hand despite my loss of will, and felt one little burst of anger. To me, this disgusting piece of wood embodied all my failures, it mocked me, ridiculed me, spat upon my name. So I did the only rational thing I could.

I threw it.

The little magical channel touched the paper my spell's primary lattice was inscribed on, and then something very familiar happened.

**KA-BOOOOOOM!**

I hacked, coughed, and tried to wipe the dust from my eyes. Of course I'd cause one more detonaiton before I left this place, that was what a _Zero_ does!

"Ach, gah! Of course she'd blow us all up again!"

"Had to get one last lick in, eh _Zero_!?"

"Will someone get her out of here before she brings the whole place down around us!"

"She's not a noble, she's a-!... What in the Founder's name is _that_!?"

A shadow loomed over me, and I looked up.

A towering figure stood there, almost human but... not, like some kind of giant.

Wait... It was standing -as best I could tell- where my spell had laid. Did I...? I rose to my feet, Kirche's hand going slack on my shoulder and falling away, and gazed up at the beast before me. And it looked back, eyes alight with fire-orange light like the pits of the hells.  
_I_ had summoned this... this creature was _my_ familiar!

A smile spread across my face, and a sharp determination wiped away he last vestiges of my former sorrow. Time to finish this.

"I am Louise Françoise le Blanc de la Vallière, I have brought you here to serve as my familiar! And Now, beast, I order you to kneel so that I may enact the contraact of service!" I called out, scooping my wand up from at my feet and pointing it at the beast's eye-glow.

I looked down at me for a moment, head cocking ot the side from how it's eyes moved.

And then it swiped a claw down at me.

**()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()**

**Cliffhanger! Haha!  
Sorry, cheapshot I know, but I could not resist.**

**Now, before we go any farther I'd like to thank yo all for reading this. I've gotten almost four hundred views, ten follows, eight favourites, and three reviews already. More than any of my other stories have gotten in-toto. So thank you all, and I hope I make it worth it!**

**Now, on to replying to the reviews**

**KrabbyBallZ: Thanks for the good words, my friend. And worry not, for Foquet, the Reconquista, Cromwell, Sheffield, Jozef, and whatever other poor SoB crosses our favorite giant monster's path will rue the day of it's and their birth.**

**LordGhostStriker: I appreciate the feedback, and agree that Saito and Goliath's abilities are different. But not that one is more powerful than the other, sure Saito can use any weapon he wants and has an immunity ot magic. But the Goliath is more physically powerful, more intelligent, and more adaptable than Saito could ever hope to be, even with Derflinger and Gandalfr. Plus I doubt that the Goliath would go out of it's way to help people like Saito does.**

** And who said their would be other monsters in this fic? Not me, nope, nope. Definitely not me. No other monsters in the fic.**

**Whitewing: I'm glad you're liking what you hear -well, read, but you get the point- and I _did_ think about doing an Evolve/Prototype fic, but I couldn't quite visualize the plot, so decided to go with Familiar of Zero. Though I haven't discarded the idea.**

**Be sure to vote for Saito's fate, the blind poll closes on the sixteenth of this month. You can vote on my Profile, in case anyone didn't know.**

**Stand tall and proud!**

**Your favourite writer, DinoholderX**


	3. Two Paths Meet, Part 1

Ba-bump, ba-bump.

What happened? Last I remembered I was in the courtyard, my summoning had... failed? I could remember an explosion, but after that it went blank. An explosion was commonly a mark of my failure, so then that would mean... I _did_ fail the summoning.

But that was impossible! I mean, I was a Vallière! None of our line had ever flopped that hard in magic, so even the thought of me failing the ritual and sealing my fate at a simple bargaining chip for a quick loveless marriage was utterly ridiculous! Right? _Right_?!

**Enough.**

Ah! What the-?!

Images started to form around me, images of... things, unlike anything I had seen in my lifetime. Some where beasts that looked to be spawned from some beautifully maddened mindscape, one taller than some building standing upon legs thin as sticks in comparison to its stout barrel, one which looked almost like a titanic insect with claws thicker than the whole of my body, even one that patrolled the lakes and waterways of this world that I almost mistook for a dragon.

What was this place?

**Home.**

There it was again! What is it!?  
More pictures floated around me, this time of landscapes. Some where lush forests thick with life both plant and animal -more of those madman's beasts, I noted- , others as barren as the deserts inhabited by the elfen race's few remnants, even a few plainlands that you ould be forgiven for confusing as Trstianian territory. Was this those beasts home?

No voice this time, and the images just kept passing by. But a few caught my eyes, one of beasts that where... different, they seemed almost human and yet not.

I reached a hand out, and my fingers brushed along the surface of the image. It felt almost... liquid. I pressed my fingers in deeper, and they sank in. I tittered, that was... interesting. I pulled my hand away.

But the image pulled _back_, and sucked me in like quicksand hit by an acceleration spell.

* * *

I stood among the terrain of the land I saw before, starlight shining from on-high, and a slight drip of rain falling upon me. Though I didn't feel it soaking into my clothes, oddly. I payed it little mind though, I had to find a way out of here!

The only thing I could think of was to start walking, I seemed ot be on some kind of trail form the looks of how the brush had parted under constant footfalls. That was good, it meant that people came through here with enough regularity to wear this path in the ground! If I just kept this up I would either find a traveler, or find civilization-! Wait, wait, back up! We've glossed over a very important piece of information.

How the hells did I get here?! Like I said, the last thing I remember was causing an explosion in the courtyard, then next thing I knew I was in that weird place with all the floating images!... Oh, now I get it.

I must have knocked myself out with that explosion -sadly it was not the first time- and now I was dreaming, I'm sure that in reality I'm laying safely on a bed in the infirmary, healer tending to me as they always have~.

A tremble ran through the ground, giving me pause. That... certainly felt real, but it could have just been my bed shifting in the real world. I had things like that happen to me times before, so... It could happen, right?

Another tremble, and a flock of what could generously be named birds took to the air in what I could easily tell was avoidance of something _big_ coming along.

Oh well! It was a dream, I couldn't be hurt in a dream.

I spread my stance and drew my wand with a sharp smirk, magic coursed through me as I prepared a spell to turn whatever was heading my way into so much powdery dust. Another advantage of the dreamscape, I could actually cast spells with a level of proficiency worthy of a daughter of Vallière.  
The only way it could be better was if I could actually cast like that in _reality._

The creature broke the treeline and stepped on to the trail, and my jaw dropped harder than a bronze brick. It stood tall as a house and then some, tendrils sprouting from all about it's frame, and a quartet of shining blue eyes taking in every detail they could see.

A pair of tendrils to the sides of what could be possibly considered it's mouth reared up and waved in a random pattern, like a serpent's tongue tasting the air for prey. It strode onwards, it's gait reminding me of a _human_ -horrifyingly enough, it evoked some level of fear that no slavering many-mouthed horror from beyond the ether could summon up within myself- and swung it's gaze to-and-fro like the swing of a pendulum.

Something else shifted in the brushline, and the monster's arm lashed out. Sparks danced across it's spidery fingers, and lightning arced to the spot of movement.

A charred husk toppled out of the plantlife barrier, speck of fire and wisps of smoke floating from it.

That sharp smirk and former confidence I had before? It's gone now. This thing was a beast of titanic proportions, unlike any other kind of creature i'd seen in my life, and could cast _magic_!?

This wasn't a dream, from this...abomination, prowling this land I could tell this; It was nightmare.

A tendril crossed my vision.  
I whirled on-heel to face the monster again, and found it had closed the distance from several dozen meters to a mere foot. It's tepid breath heating my face with every exhale, and it's four eyes burrowing into my own two.

"Eee!" I squeaked through my hands, I had thrown them up to both block the smell, and block any noise I'd make.

We stared one-another down, four eyes of azure glaring into two of pink. The intensity of the former betraying a not-so-hidden intelligence on par with -perhaps beyond- that of a human wrapped within it's titanic frame, and the latter just showing... well, panty-wetting fear. That was about it.

A rumble built up within the monster's chest, I could feel the tremor from it before the sound even left the monster's mouth. A plume of foul air escaped it's gaping jawless mouth, and then...it pulled away, almost as if it hadn't even seen me.

A pair of limbs on it's back flexed, and it took to the air like a wind dragon -Tabitha's came to mind, I couldn't be jealous for that one. She was the top of our class for a reason- it's silhouette fading off into the night sky.

"What... was... that?" I asked myself

**The Mind**

"There you are! Show yourself now... disembodied... voice..." I paused, and placed a hand to my brow "That sounded better in my head." I let out a sigh, and looked to the skyline and saw what the monster was heading for; a solitary mountian, it's side cracked open like the shell of an egg to take the image of an open tooth maw.

Which the monster flew directly in to.

I sighed "It's the best bet I have." I said to myself. I had to find some way to awake soon, I was starting to talk to myself.

* * *

_Battle. Pain. Blood. Sorrow. Pain. Weapons. Battle. Fire. Cutting. Bite. Blood  
_"_Martyrdom, that's the name of the game!"  
__Confusion. Realization. Fear.  
_"_**Grenade!**"  
__Fire. Noise. Pain. Pain. Pain. Pain._

Darkness.  
Am I dead?  
Does what I see now embody what becomes of those who fall in the Cycle?  
Did I succeed in my hunt?  
Was my death in vain?  
Have I even died at all?  
Where am I now?  
What happened?

All questions, no answers. They do me no good, and bring me no knew knowledge. Simply the strife of knowing ignorance, and the pain of being unable to truly know. I had no desire to spare time for it.

Now, what _could_ I answer? Where I had previously been was simple; I had been Home, hunting the Invaders that had been sent out to confront me. Three of whom had been sent to the Cycle courtesy of myself, and the fourth... the fourth... the fourth.  
The fourth enacted a desperation attack, the deaths of it's own pack likely addling it's sense of self-preservation to the point of being non-present, post a small confrontation. I had attempted to burn the Invader alive like I had my most recent kill, and it had taken the chance to jump into my maw and use one of it's kinds' odd abilities.

Namely, causing a sudden appearance of fire and metal wherever they threw a little stone. But this one hadn't thrown the stone before the fire came, and by association killed itself. Now, normally this wouldn't be a problem, I just scoop up the remains and feed.

But that was the thing, I was feeding on it when it used the stone, and the blaze of fire and metal erupted in my mouth.

Then I was here, wherever here was, my head oddly whole despite every piece of evidence that it should not be. I had seen stronger blown to bits by one of those stones.

Dozens of things started to float past me.

On instinct I snapped at one, my teeth sinking into...wa that an image of an Invader dwelling? It certainly looked like it, but it felt like I had bitten into a particularly thick chunk of old water-king brain -without the pleasing flavor- that had been left out in the sun. Plus it's not possible to bite in image like it was a chunk of brain.

"_**Alright... that is weird, and I mean it is weird in the most weird situation I've found myself in since... ever. So it says something.**_"  
I growled a little. I still felt the image in my mouth trying to move, so I did what any good hunter would do with prey struggling in it's maw; I shook it like the ground did when the Heart used his abilities.

Something must have happened when I did, because next thing I knew I was somewhere much more grounded in normalcy.

* * *

I don't know how long I had been walking, but the sun was starting to rise when I next looked to the sky. And when I looked back, I saw that the thick forest had been swapped for craggy rock plains. I noted that the maw-like mountain had drawn much closer in the background.

No sign of the monster in this time, though. Which I found a bit odd, if this was it's den then surely it should be wandering it? I kept my eyes peeled, an ambush might be coming.

This place still managed to mystify me, sometimes I though I had the reason for some piece of flora or fauna down pat -such as a pitcher plant using sweet smelling water to draw in insects- only for it to reveal a purpose that I doubt even the most astute of professors could conclude – the pitcher plant launching out a tendril to grab at any insects getting close- and knocked me back into the unknown.

With an added bonus of nearly jumping out of my skin every time I passed one of those things. _No_ idea if they would try to snare larger prey.

Though, large was relative. Those pitchers where taller than me!

A blur of grey flashed across my vision, and my wand was in-hand. The monster was back.  
For the second time that day, my demeanor did an instant on-heel turn.

It wasn't the creature from before, I could tell you that much. But as to what it was?... Well, let's just say it's very likely you'd confuse it to be the monster's sibling. It's hide was the same matte-grey, but the texture was much less scaly and more... euch, _slimy_!

But the viscosity of this thing's skin wasn't really that present of a concern at this point and time, it's very obvious natural armament was more pressing. Four limbs sprouted from a torso that seemed an odd caricature of the female form, the bottom pair sporting a pair of four-pronged claws which flexed in anticipation of tearing flesh, and the top pair sporting wicked blades that resembled eight foot long scythe blades.

I locked my gaze to it's head, eyes drawn to the wicked maw of jagged fangs sprouting from it's lipless visage. Speaking of eyes, this thing _didn't have any_!

What the hell was wrong with this land's life!?

The creature slid itself across the ground, digging it's scythe blades deep into the ground to aid it's speed. A testament to their sharpness, given that the ground here was solid rock and deposits of granite. The beast raised it's head, and it's forehead pulsed blue in a very strobe-like pattern. A chill ran down my spine, and the beast turned it's eyeless head towards me. A harsh shriek tore from it's throat, and it charged, lifting up off the ground in something resembling weak flight.

**The Cunning**

* * *

So, where am I now? There was grass, a sky, air to breath. So it seemed like Home, but it was... off. Almost like the world I saw several of the invaders had come from, where the Wilds where dulled, submissive. What was the word they used for it?... Ah, domesticated. Yes.  
This place seemed like it was domesticated.

A monolith of stone rose in the distance, the shape and contour where all I needed to look at to know it was not a natural structure, which left only one other origin; it was built by Invaders.  
I growled and dropped ot all fours, stalking forwards through the high grass of the plain towards my quarry. That place was a bastion to the creatures who rejected the Cycle, and I am going to tear it apart from the inside out like taking down a shellbeast!

Though it was a ways off, so I had time to take in other things as I walked. Such as the fact that I could sense no nearby Wilds, none that where familiar anyhow, the plantlife was very sedate. It didn't seem to be carnivorous in any form or fashion, perfectly content to lay about in the sun, soak up light and fatten up for some wandering Wild to eat.

And Invaders think the groundjaws are weird.

Speaking of Invaders, I scented a pair of them closing in on my position! Another party of hunters? Invaders who got lost in the jungles?... Bah, doesn't matter, they where dead either way.  
I coiled up an prepared to pounce, these two made no attempt to hide their vocalizaitons to one-another. Where they ignorant to the dangers here, or did they just not care out of either apathy or confidence?

More questions, no answers, no matter right now.

They where almost here, and I was ready.  
Closer...  
Closer...  
Closerrrrr"**rrrrRRAAAGH!**"

I leapt with a mighty howl, and broke through the thick brush to see a pair of Invaders whom something about caught my eye. They where like this area, almost normal but still... not, in some way. They just looked plain _strange_. I was using that word a lot lately.

Moving my focus back to the outer world, I saw the duo of Invaders -one a male and another a female, perhaps a mated pair?- turn towards me with a definite look of shock shared between them. Good, shock beget fear, and fear was the right response to me bearing down on you.  
I opened my maw wide, ready to swallow the pair of Invaders whole like a they where nothing more than a pair of annoying swarmbeasts. So close, and then another step on the path to reclaiming Home would be taken!

My jaws closed around them, and... I felt nothing. No flesh, not even a rush of air from a dodge.

I looked down at where the tow Invaders used to be, and they where still there! But they where passing through me like the Cunning could do when rushing at a target of her's, what did she call that anywa- My face smashed into the ground, and I skidded across the trail and into the opposite brush line like a stone skipping across water.

"Oh my, that was a powerful gust of wind!"

"Indeed, it was quite... sudden. No matter, let it not ruin our stroll."

I heard the Invaders walking away, ignorant to what had just happened to them. Or rather, what was _supposed_ to happen to them.

"**...Gruh?**"

* * *

I had no idea why or how I was alive right now, first i'm being charged by some unholy aberration of a monster that not even the depths of hell could spawn, then I feel a rush of wind past me like I was hit with a weak wind mage's casting of Air Hammer, and the monster was behind me giving off an aura of extreme confusion that mirrored my own.

It tried to charge a few more times, each time the events from the first attempt repeated themselves, until finally it seemed to decide I wasn't really there and vanish. Literally, it was there one second and gone the next, a little trail of black... something, the only sign of it's direction.  
It was heading for the mountain.

That sealed it, I had to go there to end this _whatever-this-is_ I was in. I kicked off my uniform's shoes -they weren't conducive to running, and I couldn't spare time to fashion or regal behavior- and broke into a full sprint towards the towering den of beasts, something was wrong in this land and I could tell without a doubt that the mountain was the source of it.

Yet again the terrain blurred, this time out of focus on what was ahead of me rather than simple absentmindedness of the things around me, I saw blurs of greens, blue, browns, yellows, reds, even a few spots of purple rush past me, some glowing, some plain, some so matte you couldn't even tell if they where any color but black.

"**Grrrrgh...!**"

There it-... wait, it was different this time. More solid, more present, more like it was coming from somewhere much more identifiable than 'my mind'. And it definitely sounded more primal than the one or two words I commonly heard form the voice, and it also lacked any words. It was just a growl.

I slowed to a stop, and turned in the direction of where the growl came from.  
Two very familiar glowing eyes glared back at me from the deep shadows of a rock alcove, but this time I saw more glows accompanying it. Several lines of glows running along what I assumed it's neck was "**Rrrgh...**" and it's mouth glowed to, look at that! Each time it's maw opened, I saw the outline of a wicked set of teeth that I had no doubt could rend me to shred... if I was tangible, that is!

"Come then, try your luck 'gaisn't me!" I challenged, letting some more archaic flair slip into my speech. Not like it heard me anyhow.  
A titanic boulder crashed down next to me, kicking up a torrent of wind and dust from the impact.

The eyeglow was undeterred from the obscuring cloud around me, it was still locked with my own eyes... with my own eyes... It clicked.  
This thing wasn't just sniffing around my general location like the last two beasts and giving up, this one could see me. It was without a doubt hostile, and given that the boulder it threw at me actually effected me -albeit second-handedly- it could also injure me.

My smile dropped, and I felt the icy sting of fear start to run through my veins. I was confronted with a titanic monster whom did not acknowledge me at it's master -though this could just be a nightmarish projection about the unknowns of my familiar- and was intent to kill, so there was only one logical thing to do here.

_RUN_!

I took off sprinting and a howling roar pursued me, along with a foursome of thundering footsteps. I did not look back, every time the heroine looks back in a horror story, she does something stupidl ike trips or slows to a stop in shock. And that would _not_ be me!

I heard a deep inhalation of breath, and then flames licked at my back. Now I was no virgin to feeling the touch of fire, Zerbst and I had gotten into one or two scuffles in the academy, she was a fire mage so the conclusion is easy -just like her. Hah!- and often I felt a fiery backlash of my failed spells. But that was nothing like this, this fire burned hotter and faster than any other I've run into.

And it was eating it's way up my cape!

"Ah, hot hot hot!" I yelped, fumbling with the clasps of my cape in an attempt to remove it. This managed to distract me well enough for the creature pursing me to grab me by the burning garment i'd hoped to free myself from. I was lifted high by a clawed hand, I chanced a glance back at that and saw it was not some oddly-formed prong-like grasper, but an almost human hand! Granted, it had claws that cut through my cape like my wand through air and had a thick, scaly, matte-grey hide. I looked up towards the pair of glowing eyes, and saw a sight that would stick with me for years to come, perhaps life.

A rounded head with plates of armor thicker than any knight's, angry orange eyes set far back into the skull that all could be told of it was the glow and the hatred that poured from it, spikes erupted from it's back in a brutal forest of impaling trees, and ridges of armor plating running down it's neck in a facsimile of gills, a glow much like the one from it's eyes shining between the gaps.

And the coup de grace? It's maw. It had looked impressive at a range, but up close it was nothing short of _terrifying_. Sharp teeth stained with old blood, a menacing glow and foul breath, and what looked like a pair of... mandibles on the lower jaw? Just when I thought I had the wildlife here figured out.

**The Strength. Otherwise known as; _Me_.**

I screamed, and the monster holding me replied with a short bark before throwing me to it's other hand and grabbing me by the legs. My skirt flopped down around my naval, not that it was really a point at the current moment, and looked over to a splash of color the monster's other hand.

Flames licked at it's palm, the smell of burning leather filling my nostrils as the monster tried to extinguish the self-inflicted burn.

An idea came to mind, my cloak was still burning and the monster wasn't paying attention to me...

I unhooked my cape, and threw it towards the armored face of the monster. It inclined it's head towards me at the last moment, and the eyeglow widened the slightest bit before the flaming square of cloth impacted it's face. The smell of burning leather intensified, and the monster dropped me with a bone-shaking howl of pain.

"**RAOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUGHHHH!**"

I hit the ground with a heavy thud and rolled along the ground, rock cutting into me and shredding several parts of my uniform. If I could see myself, I would definitely say I looked 'savage'. Ripped clothes, exposed undergarments, bleeding wounds, frazzled hair caught in knots and tangles, bare feet with soles coated in dirt and shards of rock, and a wild look to my eyes which showed a primal 'fight-or-flight' instinct.

My body moved of it's own volition, taking off in a run once more as the beast flailed and tried to rip away the burning cloak from it's face.

There was a slim crack in the rockface ahead of me, it wasn't guaranteed to go anywhere, but with luck then it would be deep enough to avoid the monster behind me once it got the cloak off it's face. I slid into the opening, barely wide enough for me to slip through without scraping myself worse, and sank into total darkness just as a vibrant orange glow bathed the beginnings of the crack.

I don't know how long I was in the darkness, or how many twists, turns, ups and downs I took, but I couldn't go back the way I came. I had no doubt that the monster was waiting for me outside. Thankfully I eventually found myself breaking out into the early-morning sunlight.

It was a cavern, a titanic cavern with the leftmost wall busted open like an egg letting the dawn's light spill in. The floor was fairly smooth and a full cirlce, the walls rose in a subtle building incline until they turned on themselves to link into the ceiling. Peaking of which, the ceiling had a hole busted into it at the very apex of it's height letting a column of light shine down.

Against all logic, I stepped into the column. The effect was immediate.

A very familiar foursome of thundering footsteps came form behind me, near the cavern's broken wall, a shadow blocked out the column for the briefest of moments ad the beast I ran into at the start of this dream landed on all fours at my left, and a shriek erupted from my left as the spectral beast appeared at my left.

My eyes went wide and I whirled on-heel and saw the trio of nightmarish beasts surrounding me. I was their full focus now, the four eyes of the squid-like one boring into me with a cold intelligence, the literally blank face of the ghostish one pulsing a deep red every few moments with claws flexing in an eagerness to tear me apart, and finally; the almost-human one glaring deeply at me, arms flexing and neck twisting in preparation of releasing a gout of fire.

But just like that, they looked to something ahead of me, and shrank down. All of them dropping low and to all fours -where it was applicable- in submission, whatever was behind me now was without a doubt the alpha of their odd little pack.

I turned, and saw the titanic apeish silhouette towering over me, the only signs of light on it's blackened rocky skin the central eye and almost randomly dispersed eyes around it. I thought the lattermost monster's eyes where like fire, but if it's eyes where fire this one's eyes where pure _magma_.

It leaned down to my level, showing a maw larger than Tabitha's dragon and a pair of tusks longer than I was tall.

"**YOU. DO NOT. BELONG HERE.**" It spoke, fetid breath hot as the third monster's fire blowing out from the beast's maw with each word.

"Y-you... speak?" I asked weakly, eyes wide and limbs stiff as ill-washed cloth

A dark grin split the titanic beast's maw "**YES.**" A stoney fist rose above me, blocking out the light I stood in, and crashed down on me.

The last thing I felt before it all went black was an immense crushing force and a guttural cackle running through the air.

* * *

"_**Alright, let's give a summary. I'm in a hither-to unknown area of Home which the Invaders have propagated and taken a foothold, and for some reason I can't feel any common Wilds or interact with a damn thing here.**_"

I had tried to shake myself of the recent events that had transpired, my failed attack on the pair of Invaders taking a 'stroll' as it was put by one of them -hadn't bothered to identify which- after the 'gust' of wind had passed them by.

Currently I had seated myself by one of the lengths of stone that made up the outer shell of the Invader den and began trying to comprehend what I had seen transpire. Now I was no stranger to odd things, the Invaders in the more explored areas of Home were definitely able to throw some unexpected abilities out. The previous Strength had fallen for that when the Heart called for an escalated battle against the Invaders and ran headfirst into an ambush of fire and flying metal, there wasn't even enough of him found to scrape together for a snack.

A tragic day for all involved who showed even the mildest care for the Cycle.

I couldn't help but reflect upon the battles against the Invaders that I and the Guardians had faced in the months-long conflict, the victories and losses, the glory and tragedy. But most of all, the destruction that was wrought upon Home. I had memories of beautiful vistas and silent nights where the only lights out and about where the ones of the planet. But man of those places where now tainted by Invader dens and constructs, befouled by bloodshed, or simply wiped off the map. The night sky no-longer shined planet-wide and bright, the lights the Invaders placed upon their dens to ward off the darkness they feared bled into the sky and dulled the shining natural lights of the great sights of Home's sky.

I let a saddened rattle flow from my throat, and tried to focus on what was happening now. I turned to the length of stone and started to scale it. The surface may have been smooth as the Cunning's hide, but I could dig my claws into it easily as I could drink water. Without the risk of angering a prowling water-king, for a bonus.

I poked my head over the length, and saw a sight that almost made me fall right off it. Invaders of all kinds and calibers wandering about the small clearing either interacting with other Invaders of things that looked almost like _Wilds_!

I leapt over the length of stone and landed with a heavy thump on the ground below -obviously unnoticed by the Invaders, though a few of their Psudo-Wilds did jerk in my direction. Natural instinct, it seemed- then started to stalk through the clearing, Psudo-Wilds shying away from my spectral self in yet another show of highly-intelligent natural instinct.

I turned a corner around the central spire of stone, ducking under one of the arches that linked to a smaller spire attached to the length of stone creating the outer shell, and spotted a pair of Invaders enacting what I could only assume was a bit of wooing before mating based on the pheromones both the male and female where emitting.  
I couldn't help myself, i'd only ever seen or smelled Invaders when they where enraged into a hunt, struck with fear at their own death, or wracked with grief at a packmate's death. Never when they where in the throes of passion.

I leaned in, and took a whiff. It smelled nice, like fresh meat and odorous plants.

The female seemed to notice this and cracked an eye open to inspect what had just sniffed her, she paled a little -an odd thing to see given the dark coloration of her hide- then froze. Her mate noticed this and, much to his consternation, took pause in his ministrations to investigate his mate's distress "What is it, Kirche? Did I do something wrong?" he asked, pulling away from the duo's locking of lips.

I could tell that I'd overstayed my welcome, and took off around another corner. At least an advantage to my intangibility was that the pull of rushing wind didn't effect me, I could move much _much_ faster than the norm. Given I moved fast already, this was saying something.

I managed to pick up on one last tidbit of speech as I least "I... I thought I saw something. Something _monstrous_."

That one perturbed me a bit, 'Monster' was a title that I often heard the hunters call my and my fellow Guardians, and I had to say it angered me a little... more than a little... okay, it was one of the few ways to enrage me sky of a bout of blood rage, I'll admit. Where I not intangible I likely would have been ripping those two apart at this very moment.

Well, i'd be killing every Invader here either way. But that's beside the point.

I ended up running through another Invader while I was more focused on my thoughts, and the small female's sky-colored hair stood on-end when I passed through her. I didn't have time for another Invader, I had to find... something. I didn't know what, but I knew that there was something here that I needed to locate. What I did after that, well... i'd do whatever seemed right, from smashing it apart to defending it with my life.

Cross that crevasse when I came to it.

And it seemed that said crevasse came now! I didn't know how, but I could sense whatever I was here for was within the central spire of stone a bit above eye-level. Beyond my view, but that was a simple fix. I dug my claws into the stone and climbed.

What I saw within the small cavern that my quarry lay within honestly perplexed me. I'd never seen the insides of Invader dwellings when they where whole and undamaged, but I'd seen wreckage and there was nothing like what I saw here. Most of the things within the cavern where made of cut wood, and what little was not was some kind of woven plant. I couldn't ascertain much else besides that. Besides, it wasn't important.

The Invader with the head of long pink hair slumbering on some odd construct was. I didn't question my instincts here, and reached a hand out to grasp her from her bed. But as my claws brushed the plantlife covering her she stirred, making me pull back and simply observe. I pressed one of my eyes pressed up to the small entrance i'd slipped a limb through.

She stirred slowly, sleep had put her into an immense state of lethargy and I was doubtless she was used to a quick waking either way. It made me wonder why exactly the Invaders had managed to survive on their planet if they woke up this slowly? Attacks come on most frequently at the early hours.

A disdainful growl escaped my throat and the little Invader turned her sleepy gaze towards me,it immediately changed from a look of sleep to one of utter shock. There where no points guessing what happened next, it's fairly obvious.

Even if I didn't see it coming at the time.

She screamed, and I ended up losing my grip from the small jump it made me take. I fell, and the last thing I saw before I hit the ground was the Invader poking her head from the hole in the spire to see me crash.

* * *

I felt myself in the smooth embrace of cloth and linen, both signature marks of a bed, andI could hear no howls or hoots of the wilds. It also seemed that my previous wounds where all but a memory, no scrapes, no scratches, no slashes. And best of all, she wasn't crushed flatter than a pancake!

"So... it was a dream, thank Brimir." I sighed, cracking my eyes open.

The first thing to greet me was a head of red hair and chocolate skin. The first thing I felt was my head being jammed into a very familiar bust, though commonly I ended up ramming into it from being lost in my own thoughts, or as a taunt from the person that bust was attached to.

"Oh Louise, I'm so glad you're okay! When that horrid beast assailed you at the summoning, when I saw the injuries it inflicted on you, my heart nearly stopped! I've been so worried you wouldn't heal well, and... ah, it doesn't matter, you're okay!" Was I going insane? Or maybe in another dream? Because it sounded like Kirche was happy I was alive, an that just... it didn't made _any_ sense.

I let out a soft chuckle, and gave a mirthless smirk "Don't want to lose your punching bag, hm?" I asked, trying to extricate myself from both Kirche's bust and grip. She didn't fight back, and actually pulled back a bit to look me in the eyes. Something that managed to catching me off guard about her gaze though, it wasn't the regular arrogant gleam or lustful glow, she actually looked... sad, _hurt_ even.

"What?... Louise, you're not my punching bag. I-i know that I rile you a... well, a lot. But it's just teasing, I didn't really mean what I said." Kirche tried to hug me to her bust again, but I put an arm to her shoulder and gave a shove to force her away.

"Oh yes, all those jabs at my bust where simple teasing that I could understand. But the ones against my magic? Those I could see where plain ridicule, reinforcements of what I knew, but just refused to acknowledge." I grit my teeth, and glared into Zerbt's shocked eyes "Do you know what I always thought when someone called me 'Zero'? I thought 'They're wrong. I'm a Valliere, and no Valliere woman has ever been a failure such as what they claim!'... But one little part of me, the sad little girl who took every lash both verbal and physical that ever came of her inability, and said 'they're right.'. Do you have any idea what that's like, Zerbst? Do you?" She didn't respond, she just placed a hand over her face to try and hide herself from the truth.  
"Thought so." I grunted.

"... I'm sorry..."

"What?" Did she just say-?

"I'm so sorry!" And without any further warning, Zerbst had put me into a full-on smothering hug. Droplets of water splashed against my hair, eventually soaking down to the flesh of my head from both quantity and consistency of their falling. I could only draw one conclusion from it, Kirche was crying on my head.

"G-get-" I shoved her, but her grip held firm this time "-offa-" shove again, she didn't notice, and just kept repeating 'I'm sorry' over and over "-me!" I swung a punch this time, and it caught Kirche in the ribs. This had a definite effect.

She stopped talking for one, and her breaths came in as shallow hiccups. Though that could have been caused by her bout of tears. Another shove and I managed to come loose of Kirche's grip, and left her to stew in what she learned. I had no idea if I was free to leave, but at this point I didn't care. I pulled myself from the bed and placed my bare feet on to the hardwood floor. Cold, but solid enough to stand on.

I tried to rise, but while the floor was solid and unmoving, but my legs where a much different story. They gave way to my weight -light as I was- and I started falling. But something solid wrapped around my waist to help me keep upright, and a hand placed itself on my shoulder "Here, let me help you. It's... the least I can do." Kirche said, her arm wrapped around my midsection

I opened my mouth to object, but the though occurred to me that I wasn't exactly strong enough on my feet to stand, let alone _walk_. So I merely growled out a "Fine." and fell silent, my gaze falling to the floor.

Kirche's face broke out in a beaming smile and she said "Excellent! Now, how about we go see your familiar?"

My mood took a complete turn, and I turned my face up to look Kirche head-on "M-... my _familiar_?" I asked softly

The redhead tittered softly "Yes, you succeeded in the summoning ritual with that... unconventional spell. The creature that put you here was the one _you_ summoned." She explained, giving a soft inclination of the head.

I frowned, how did that beast attack me and still live? No sense wondering, I could just ask it seemed.  
"How did it do that?"

Kirche's smile fell a little, and she averted her gaze "... Well... it was injured when you summoned it, something had practically mauled the left half of it's head, and it... ah, how do I say this?... It fell on you."

My jaw dropped, and I could only say one thing;

"What."

* * *

Pain.  
That was the first thing that came to mind as I awoke; _Pain_.

I was in a void of darkness -again- that seemed very... _un_natural. This wasn't like I was inside the den and the sun was down, no. This was like that one time I was captured by the Invaders just before I began my time as the new Strength, when they had some sort of blinding thing over my head. In fact, this felt almost the same as that blinding thing the Invaders had used, eerily so... wait.

I tried to take a breath through my maw, the air would incite the glands in my throat to produce the mixture for my fire, and found that it was blocked off by something made from metal clasping around my jaws.

Okay, not another … whatever. I really was captured.  
Hang on... _I was captured_! I started struggling with as much might as I could muster, and I heard the rattle of more metal binding me to the ground. Something was wrong here, normally I could break things like the bindings in this vein like the bones of a mudshifter, but now they felt stronger than the armor plates of an alpha shellbeast. I also felt wrong, like I was smaller, weaker... younger.

I couldn't focus on that yet, I had to free myself from the blinding thing on my head. I threw my head right, then left. Right, then left. Right, then left.  
Right, and... _left_!

Something flew from my head, and light flooded my vision. I saw where I was held now, and it was not something that pleased me. Cut stone made a square room -square as far as I could see since I couldn't turn my head to far, something was wrapped around my neck- with fiery sticks on either side of a half-oval of wood with bits of metal attached to it. I saw and felt what bound me now, black lengths of hide wrapped around my wrists, my ankles, my torso, neck, and even the joints of my limbs. There was no way for me to move to well.

No time to contemplate my situation, it seemed, as the half-oval of wood ahead of me started to move outwards. Light flooded in to sting my eyes for the briefest of moments, the cost of having eyes meant more for the dark rather than the light, and curled myself up as much as I could. If I was lucky, then whatever was coming through the hole would think he was still slumbering.

"Well, here it is." A female, voice dusky and smooth.

"It's certainly... large." Another female, her voice higher and sharp as Cunning's claws.

"You're a phenomenal master of the obvious, aren't you-? Ah, I'm sorry! I need to get used ot not teasing you and-"

"Kirche, stop." A sigh "Can you bring me closer? I haven't sealed the contract with it, yet. I'm assuming that's why it's wrapped in chains?" So thats what this form of metal was called? Something to remember, the other Guardians and myself didn't really know the different kinds of metal the Invaders used and the names for the many forms the substance could take.

A hand touched to the top of my head, and a small growl escaped my throat. I was tempted to rear up and bite, kill whatever was in front of me to try and find out more about what was happening... but it didn't seem the smartest move to make, the chains still bound me and I was to weak to break them for now.  
"Pentagon of the five powers, bless this creature and make it my familiar." Something soft touched to my head, and I felt an odd onrush of power. It was almost like a river was running through my veins, that pure fire flowed in my limbs, that lightning coursed through my senses.

Then those feeling turned form good to bad, rather than feeling the power inherent to holding those things within my body, I felt the _pain_ of it. I had thought my wounds form before where bad, but it was nothing compared to this, it was like reliving the last moments of every Wild and Invader I ever burned with my fire at once and adding what I assumed it felt like to be hit by one of the Heart's magma spheres.

I reared in pain when I felt the whole of the pain refocus on to my left hand, and tried to yank my maw over to bite at it. It was a very common instinct, if some part of you was in pain then you tried to either sooth it with licking or bite it off to remove whatever was causing the pain.  
Oh, and don't think I had been silent throughout the whole of this, I had been growling and grunting since it started hurting. But when it all focused on one place, I could do only one thing;

Howl like the Cunning.

"**RAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUHHHHHHHH!**"

"Louise, get back!" I could see the two who had been communicating now. A pair of odd-looking Invaders, the first who had just spoken had a dark hide that reminded me of fertile ground and long hair on her head that looked almost like it was flame made solid. The second Invader was smaller than the first, her hide a color almost like an alpha Wild's and her hair a solid pink color.

The first had pulled the second away with a limb around her midsection, and was now pointing some odd-looking shard of wood at me. I payed it little mind and focused on trying to make the pain go away.

I struggled and strained against the lengths of chain and wrapping of hide that bound me, twisting the lengths and them pulling hard at them, snapping my freed jaws -the metal binding them had snapped when I roared- at them in an effort to catch one in my teeth and cut it to bits, and I even let out a few sprays of flame.

This combined effort bared a bounty, and the metal binding my neck broke. I snapped my head over to the chains binding my left arm and bit into them. They had no chance in the world to withstand my bite, and they to broke.

It seemed that each chain had reinforced another, and as I broke through one another snapped in response, which in turn broke another, and another, and another, and so on.

Before long, I was free to move as I wished again, and focused on trying to end the pain coursing through my limb. I bit, licked, clawed, and smashed at it. Either I would get rid of the pain, or I would get rid of my hand, I did not care which at this point.

Eventually the pain did fade, and I saw that some odd symbols had been inscribed on to my hide. They seemed almost like the inscribings the Heart made for us to look at.

"_**Gandalfr...**_" Odd word.  
"**Gra-uarh...**"

I heard a gasp ahead of me, and turned my gaze to look at the culprit.

The pink Invader, she had moved ahead seemingly ignorant to the dangers of approaching me. Her bright eyes staring into my own glowing ones with an odd look of recognition. Why would see look at me like that? I know Invaders have seen me before, but most commonly it garnered a reaction of utter fear not of this 'I've seen you before' look that the Invader in front of me hand.

"Y-you..." she whispered, eyes wide with shock... A very familiar shock...

The vision from before I awoke returned to me; the field of grass, finding the Invader den, trying to ambush the strolling mated pair, the odd Invaders communing with Psudo-Wilds, the spire of stone, climbing up to a small cave in the spire, and finally seeing my quarry; the female that now stood before me.

"_**You!**_" I said.

**()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()**

**… Yep, two cliffhangers in a row. Now if you don't mind me, I'll be laughing my ass off.**

**AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA- But seriously, as you could see in the title this isn't a chapter ending on a cliffhanger. It's a two-parter!**

**And if the Goliath's speech patterns seemed a bit all over the place or inconsistent it's because I'm still trying to figure out how I want him to come across. Also of note; I managed to play a few more games of Evolve, an even split between the Hunters and Monster, so I'll be able to make the Shearian side of the fic more fleshed out.**

**Now, on to business. First, the new terms Goliath used.**

**Shellbeast: That would be the Monster term for a Dune Beetle. It's almost an insect, but not, so I decided to give it the generalized 'beast' suffix to tack on it's most prominent feature; it's shell. And so the term 'shellbeast' was born.**

**Groundjaws: Those plants on some of the maps in Evolve that snap shut like venus fly traps if you step on them. I chose to call them groundjaws 'cause that's basically what they are; jaws on the ground. Like an organic beartrap!**

**Swarmbeast: Reavers. I could think of no better term for them than that, Idon't know aobut you but those little bastards came at me in swarms no matter what I was! Anything from the Medic to Monster Stage 3.**

**Mudshifter: It's what the Guaridans call Marsh Striders, I assumed since they tend to hand around water and have a pair of long prehensile tongues that they dig around for tubers and bugs in the mud with them.**

**Alright, that's done. Now the fun parts!**

**Lesse here... Wow, over forty Favorites and Follows, eighteen reviews, over eighteen_-hundred_ views, and I got added to a community!**

**Speaking of which, I just wanna give a brief shoutout to xbox432 who added my story to his archive of FoZ crossovers. Head over and take a look, it's called Familiar of Zero: X-Overs**

**Now a bit of news on the poll for Saito's presence in the story.**

**As you all saw, I closed the poll on the seventeenth of this month -ten days previous to this chapter being produced- and it had a forty-forty spit for Saito being here but not a familiar, or not being here at all. Now for all of you hoping ot have Saito in this story...I'm sorry to say he won't be around.  
****But, do not despair, because I decided to combine the two options that tied into one result! Saito won't be in _this_ story, but I'm giving him his own lttile side-story; Hunter Hiraga.**

**I'd like to thank bigJ1000 for giving me the idea -albeit second-handedly- to make Saito a hunter. You'll be seeing that story come around real soon.**

**Okay, time for the reviews!**

**Guest: Glad to see another player out on the site! Now I can't really give perspective on your Kraken playstyle -I play Goliath pretty much exclusively, dual-in-part to the fact that I don't own a copy and can only play at friend's house so I can't get the time needed to unlock it and the fact that Kraken just... doesn't seem fun to me- and thanks for the heads up about Factor and EbonStar. I didn't play any games as the Hunters where Torvald, Slim, or Maggie where around, except one time where he 'talked' with Crow, when I wrote chapter. But it does work out with something I have planned for later in the fic.**

**bigJ1000: Well, as said above, Saito's not gonna show up _here_. But he's getting a side-story just like that all to himself!**

**Tolazytologin: Wish granted.**

**mastermind: Don't worry yourself, I won't be making the Goliath a human. I know that it just kills the feel of the fic, we wanna see how a _non_-human familiar would handle these situations built for a _human_ one.**

**LeviathanTamer: Heh-heh, that she did and that it was! By the way, I love the Avatar.**

**qhoot: Wel I can just tell that you're going to be a delightful reader! Thank you for you kind words and all the questions, and I try to build past what the vanilla content gives you in a game or other form of media when I write about it. Now let's get you some answers: Goliath was Stage-3 in the first chapter, but his summoning ended up using a lot of his mass to try and dual parts revive him from the brink of death and heal his wounds, so he's bumped back to Stage-1. As you heard from Kirche and saw by the first thing the Goliath felt when he awoke he _was_ hurt by eating that grenade in the prologue. Given that the big guy is second only to the Behemoth in armor and health in the game, and the fact that I always pick Damage Resistance as my starting perk, I'd say he's still just as -if not more- durable as he is in game. And finally for your questions on his intelligence, it's a mix of both your options, he's naturally extremely intelligent on a human scale -though between all the Monsters he is indeed the dumbest- but the context for a lot of his thought comes from eating things, I'm going with the fan theory that the Monsters gain bits and pieces of the knowledge their prey had in life. Also, about the minion AI, the minions are freshly hatched creatures, is an infant human smart in comparison to an adult one?**

**SteelWingAngel: Thank you for the... passionate words. I'm glad to see that my story gave you such a burst of emotion! It's what I strive for as a writer.**

**Evolving critic: Thanks for the kind words, and I know everyone hates cliffhangers, but I sadly cannot give a schedule for my updates. I'll try and keep them at least semi-consistent, but don't expect more than maybe two a month for a while. At least until I can work on my production speed and handle some problems IRL.**

**Silent howl, coronadomontes, nopparitari, THE OMEGA TITAN, and garrusvakarian304: Thank you all for the compliments to my work, and I hope I can keep pleasing you with what I write.**

**Stand tall and proud!**

**Your favourite writer, DinoholderX**


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